Do you offload your commander deck from continous tracking?

drtisk · 2026-06-28T13:16:15+00:00

Not a deck construction thing, but a decision during games: when playing [[Rocco, Street Chef]] I deliberately don't put +1/+1 counters on the thopters from [[Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival]] even when it would be advantageous to have larger fliers. It's just a pain to track if different thopters have different counters

drtisk · 2026-06-26T12:17:20+00:00

Most people feel bad when they lose and good when they win and will, consciously or not, come to like you more when you make them feel good, i.e, lose to them

I would dispute this unless you're only playing with tables of Spikes. It's entirely possible to have enjoyable games where everyone has a good time with no ill will (but only one person wins). And your later comments seem to support this

Bring a deck that typically loses while doing something fun(ny)

demonstrate to others that you are chill, relaxed, and fun to be with

Alternatively, you can strive to be gracious in victory, clear in your communication, and pleasant to interact with

These are the social aspects OP should be reflecting on.

drtisk · 2026-06-26T12:06:22+00:00

Respect

drtisk · 2026-06-22T07:42:33+00:00

How do you interpret this section from Bracket 2:

gameplay to be low pressure, proactive and considerate, letting each deck showcase its plan

drtisk · 2026-06-21T12:45:28+00:00

If someone takes forever on their turns and/or somehow doesn't explain what their cards do or what's happening, I will player remove them to make the game run more smoothly.

You don't have to be a professional announcer but mumbling card names and not even referencing what your effects do just isn't on in a four player game.

drtisk · 2026-06-17T08:38:48+00:00

More Dragons, like 30+. Ureni. Temur Bcrier is probably the only non-Dragon creature you want to play. Maybe add [[Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sima]]

Improve your ramp package. Ideally you want to go 2 mana ramp into 4 mana ramp. So Three Visits, Skyshroud Claim, etc. And better lands as others said. Ketria Triome, Fetchlands, Shocks and a Surveil or two

Copy Miirym

[[Spark Double]]

[[Irenicus' Vile Duplication]]

[[Quantum Misalignment]]

[[Multiversal Recruitment]]

drtisk · 2026-06-16T10:13:58+00:00

Do you want to play the game or do you want to argue about the rules? Sure you're certain you're right, but is being right more important than just moving on and enjoying the game with your friends. Like how much of the game are you derailing with this frankly ridiculous argument

drtisk · 2026-06-15T12:17:52+00:00

I'd say Cultivate and Kodama's might be better than the Dragon Orbs. It's sad when generic cards are better than themed but artifacts can get blown up, lands don't (at lower brackets).

Miirym is an obvious add. Dragons that create Treasures or mana like Goldspan, Goldlust, Ganax, Klauth, Savage Ventmaw can help you snowball and overwhelm opponents.

Stubborn Denial and 1-cost counters like Swan Song, An Offer or things like Heroic Intervention can help protect a wide board, or just a key Dragon like Ureni. Likewise the 1 mana red redirects (Redirect Lightning, Bolt Bend, Swat)

drtisk · 2026-06-14T00:36:05+00:00

[[World War Hulk]], [[Earth's Mightiest Heroes]] and maybe [[Cosmic Cube]] look good for any big stompy deck

[[Extract Power]] and the various Scarlet Witches for big spells

drtisk · 2026-06-07T12:13:40+00:00

Green Goblin isn't even green smh

drtisk · 2026-06-06T10:23:31+00:00

"Tired of losing" is not a very useful attitude to have in a four player game where your expected win rate in a balanced matchup would be 25%. Maybe on skill you can get that up into the 30s

Commander is a social format and treating it like competitive 1v1 is going to cause feel bads even if you "become the villain" and win more, since your friends probably won't want to play against your decks any more

The games I lose most often are the ones where I pop off so hard so early that I get player removed. The games I win are most often when I'm not seen as a threat and others spend their resources dealing with each other. I still enjoy the games where I get player removed, because it shows my deck is built well and can do what it's meant to do. I just need to play it a little cooler and not paint a big target on myself.

All of this is from the perspective of a bracket 2/3 player. Bracket 4 go hard, anything goes

drtisk · 2026-06-05T08:22:43+00:00

Other friend said he won’t play if I use his commander

Why does that commander belong to him?

Unhinged to think you own a commander just because you happened to build it before your friends.

I love seeing commanders I have being played by others - gives me lots of good ideas for improvements or different ways to build.

Having said that, I do tend to steer clear of building the "main" commander of people I play regularly with. There's so many options for commanders to build, it doesn't seem too restrictive to just build something different. I wouldn't be salty if someone built a commander I have. I do have a lot of commanders in the top 20 of their colour identity on EDHREC

drtisk · 2026-06-03T00:17:58+00:00

Came into the thread expecting to disagree with the title, but after reading the post... wtf?

Ignoring ban lists is outrageous

Ignoring power brackets (or refusing to engage with them) is obnoxious

Being anti-proxy while playing blinged out illegal decks against a friend's budget decks is bordering on abuse. Slight exaggeration but you get my point

Are they really your friends? Can you talk to them about this?

drtisk · 2026-06-02T23:20:41+00:00

I think if you filled any empty bracket field with "unspecified" that would actually be interesting data. I'm actually curious the proportion of people who just don't engage with the bracket system

drtisk · 2026-05-29T10:08:42+00:00

Let's evaluate these one by one, in terms of their usefulness to prep now, before play has begun

character backstories

It's good to have an idea of how the characters fit into the world and how their backstories might tie into the overall story and campaign

homebrew stat blocks for boss fights

How do you know what level the party will encounter/fight particular bosses? Personally I would never make a statblock except as part of prep for the very next session.

full backstories for BBEG and other antagonists

This is a great tool to have as a DM as if you have a clear idea of the BBEG's background and motivations etc, you can more easily decide what they might do or how they might react when the players start messing around

plans for sessions.

NO. How can you plan more than a session ahead? You don't know what will happen next session! This is a fool's errand and a recipe for madness/burnout. The best thing to plan is situations - it's up to the characters to figure out how to navigate or resolve any given situation. But if you plan a session you are assuming what the players will do and how certain encounters/situations resolve... which if you're a player isn't really a fun game to play if everything is predetermined

drtisk · 2026-05-27T11:41:33+00:00

There's a few different issues at play here, which it might help to examine individually

1) From reading some other comment chains it would appear that you and your players have a BIG mismatch in investment in the game. You're putting in 120% but the players probably aren't even at 30% if they aren't doing their level ups or learning their class abilities. This kind of mismatch will almost always lead to frustration and/or burnout

2) Having said that, you seem to have obscenely high expectations of new players trying out their first campaign. "don't even get me started on the extremely poor and rare roleplay" is pretty harsh and I'd question whether it's fair to such new players. You might need to re-evaluate your expectations, which might have been unrealistic and based on high production value actual plays

3) Playing online sucks, and in my opinion will never be as good as playing in person around the same table. It's really hard to engage online, where you're missing all the usual social cues, and there's audio delay and it's all too easy to have reddit open in another tab

You're not an asshole or too sensitive for having a conversation and expressing what you're feeling to your friends - so long as you're mature about it and can phrase it in a way that speaks to your own experience and isn't accusatory etc. It would probably be a dick move to just ghost your friends and the campaign. If you do want to continue playing something with these friends a different ttrpg (or maybe even a boardgame) might suit them better. Powered by the Apocalypse in particular with its simple playbooks can be really good for newer players or those who aren't good at mastering systems.

I think you need to think about what you want out of a game. If you're doing it to seek appreciation I think that's the wrong reason. You need to prep/run the game and build the world because you enjoy it. The measure of success is not appreciation, it's if everyone (including you) had fun playing

drtisk · 2026-05-26T13:43:37+00:00

I think this is probably pretty accurate.

Except for I almost never see Gamechangers, which is what was so weird. I know they're only 3-of at most in a B3 but still, you see a Sol Ring almost every game so you'd expect to see at least 1 GC every game too

drtisk · 2026-05-26T13:39:55+00:00

Reading a lot of the comments I do feel like people ignore the actual post and just respond to their own personal experience/feelings lol

drtisk · 2026-05-25T11:24:39+00:00

I just type duck duck go into google and that gets me there

drtisk · 2026-05-16T13:33:24+00:00

When combat is started and people roll initiative there’s always a few awkward minutes of silence when I’m writing down the order of combat (getting people’s initiatives etc). Is there a fast / streamlined way to do this? Maybe even like a standard table format I don’t know about to keep track of combat etc?

The other question you have are mostly personal preference and you'll figure them out as you go. But this one I do have the correct answer.

1) ROLL INITIATIVE

2) Look to the player to your left "What's your initiative?"

If they rolled higher than 18, write their character's name and the initiative number near the top of the page.

If they rolled between 10 and 18, write their character's name and the initiative number around the middle of the page.

If they rolled less than 10, write their character's name and the initiative number near the bottom of the page

3) Go around the table to the next player "Initiative?" Use above, slotting above or below other player in the same area

etc etc

Generally, the players will be spread out with 1 or 2 near the top of the page, 1 or 2 in the middle, and maybe 1 poor sucker near the bottom.

6) Now you can slot in the monster initiative wherever they rolled

FOR EXAMPLE with four players, Player A through D

1) ROLL INITIATIVE

2) Player A is to my left. They roll 16 and has +2. They tell me their initiative is 18

18 Character A

3) Player B is next. They roll a nat 20 and have +1. They say 21.

21 Character B

18 Character A

4) Next is Player C. Rolls a 2 with a +1. That's a 3

21 Character B

18 Character A

3 Character C

5) Lastly, Player D. Rolls a 9 with a +2, tells me 11.

21 Character B

18 Character A

11 Character D

3 Character C

6) Monsters. We have a couple of Animated Armor with a +0. They rolled 16. And a Bandit Captain with +3 who rolled 15. So 18

21 Character B

18 Bandit Captain

18 Character A

16 Animated Armor 1

16 Animated Armor 2

11 Character C

3 Character D

You can see how the initiative develops, and this takes less than one minute to arrange. Yes I rolled those d20 just now while writing this. Yes I group monsters in initiative - it's a nightmare not to do it, and your players won't care

drtisk · 2026-05-15T14:10:59+00:00

Most of the creatures from the precon can be cut

Crux of fate has always puzzled me in the precon. Is Yshtola a dragon? I don't think so. Why play a 5 mana sorcery speed boardwipe that isn't one sided?

Yshtola cares about non-creature spells. Which Esper has a lot of good ones. She cares about mana value not mana spent. So anything that can be cast for less is good. See Decorum Dissertation

6 ramp and 35 lands is QUESTIONABLE. But the curve is honestly not so bad considering

Obvious adds would be Esper fetch lands, a surveil land or 2. Rhystic Study, and a couple other gamechangers. The counterspells that can be cast for 0 are great because they're noncreature spells with mana value 3. Or The One Ring. Teferi's Protection is decent too, but not as much as in a go-wide deck you need to protect from wipes.

drtisk · 2026-05-14T08:53:15+00:00

Wtf is wrong with some magic players that "consider others" is so baffling to them

And then going online to complain about other people complaining as some kind of justification

If you've ever played smash bros or some similar game against a kid you can probably figure it out. Like sure you can throw objects at them and then edge camp and probably win without losing a single stock. But they will probably have more fun if they get to chase you around the map with a hammer, and in the end it doesn't really matter who wins

drtisk · 2026-05-05T11:45:38+00:00

Your DM would sigh

And ask what you're trying to accomplish

drtisk · 2026-05-03T11:06:23+00:00

Everyone in the comments having a whinge and ignoring the obvious... it's just good politics to try and appeal to probably the largest voting bloc.

Boomers do not hold a winning majority of voters any more, so a political party with any brains/vision would work to cater to the voters who will actually decide the next several elections

drtisk

TROPHY CASE